1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an exposure apparatus, and a method of manufacturing a device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a process of manufacturing semiconductor devices, and the like, an exposure apparatus (immersion exposure apparatus) exposes a wafer (substrate) while the space between the wafer and a final lens (final lens surface) of a projection optical system has been filed with a liquid. In order to locally hold the liquid, the immersion exposure apparatus has an immersion nozzle for the supply and recovery of the liquid in the periphery of the projection optical system.
The immersion nozzle is designed such that even if the stage holding the wafer is moved at high-velocity, no liquid remains on the wafer. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-147652 proposes technology for suppressing the amount of residual liquid on a wafer by disposing multiple recovery openings (ports) on the lower face of an immersion nozzle (the face opposing the wafer), including recovery openings (ports) positioned at the vertices of a polygon and recovery openings (ports) positioned on the sides connecting the vertices. Here, in a case when the angle formed by a line connecting two recovery openings relative to the movement direction of the substrate is a right angle, the meniscus (the edge of the liquid) between these two recovery openings is subjected to the greatest amount of force from the movement of the substrate. In order to address this, the force applied to the meniscus between the two recovery openings can be mitigated by setting the angle so as to be less than a right angle. The technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-14762 uses this principle.
With the technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-147652, however, it is not possible to mitigate the force acting on the meniscus in the vicinity of the vertices of the polygon, and, therefore there are cases in which the liquid cannot be completely recovered by the recovery openings at the vertices, and the liquid leaks onto the wafer.